Almost There: Cary Grant in "The Awful Truth"

by Cláudio Alves

Since last month, the Criterion Channel has hosted a curated collection of screwball comedies, spanning the subgenre's pre-Code genesis to its postwar decline. Among the many screwy delights, you'll find The Awful Truth, Leo McCarey's 1937 classic, and a Best Director Oscar winner to boot. Indeed, the movie was most beloved by the Academy, scoring five additional nominations, including for Picture, Actress, and Supporting Actor. According to contemporary publications, that last honor was a relative surprise, especially since the movie's leading man was left off the ballot altogether.

You would think a major star associated with such an awards juggernaut would have an easy time nabbing themselves a coattails nomination, but Cary Grant was out of luck in 1937. Well, when it comes to the AMPAS, he was often unfortunate, only ever getting their seal of approval in the early 40s with a couple of dips into melodrama-land. Though much of the star's legacy relies on comedies, Old Hollywood voters seemed perpetually unimpressed by Grant's funny business. In that regard, The Awful Truth stands out as his most egregious snub…

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Almost There: Audrey Hepburn in "Charade"

by Cláudio Alves

The Almost There series continues its traverse through the Criterion Channel's May offerings. After Cher in Robert Altman's Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, and Ida Lupino in Vincent Sherman's The Hard Way, it's time to look at Charade, directed by the incredible Stanley Donen. The rom-com spy thriller  was a critical and commercial success upon its original release, and its reputation continued to grow with time. Featured in multiple AFI Top 100 lists, Charade is beloved by many a classic movie aficionado, as well as Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn fans.

The stars are in top form, delivering blinding charisma and irresistible charm. So much so that one has to wonder how close they came to Oscar nominations. Especially Hepburn, who was at the peak of her popularity…

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Counter-Point: The 50 “Best” Rom-Coms (Pre-’90s)

by Mark Brinkerhoff

That sound you heard this week? It likely was #FilmTwitter collectively reeling from reading The Ringer staff’s list of the 50 “best” romantic comedies of all time. What prompted such a breathless response, however, was that only one of the films on the instantly infamous list pre-dated the 1980s, and it *wasn’t* Annie Hall. No, that Best Picture-winning, genre-redefining classic didn’t make the top *50*, Harold and Maude did. 

Now far be it for me to quibble about anything the late, great Hal Ashby made (namely Harold and Maude) but the otherwise ignorance of literally more than half a century of not only the very best rom-coms, but some of the finest films of all time—period—can’t go unnoticed. So with that, here’s a non-exhaustive, chronological list of the “best” rom-coms from the genre’s Golden Age in the ’30s through its modernization in the ’70s/’80s with links to where you can watch them...

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"The Awful Truth" about Irene Dunne

by Baby Clyde

I adore Irene Dunne. Who doesn’t? She great in everything. She’s great AT everything. So why is she so little known these days? How can a woman who was an A List Movie star for 20 years during the Golden Age of Classic Hollywood be so little remembered? Obviously, she’s a big deal to Old Hollywood loving cinephiles but to the public at large she’s a more or less forgotten. I think this mainly comes down to the fact that she doesn’t really fit in anywhere. She was a Jack of all Trades and consequently isn’t specifically identified with one genre. In many ways her versatility was her downfall (in terms of staying in the public imagination).

She started in movies quite late. Born in 1898 she was already a fair bit older than most of her contemporaries when she headed West, after a successful if unspectacular Broadway career. Making her first film in 1930 she was an immediate hit. Her second film, 1931’s Cimarron, won the Best Picture Academy Award and she received the 1st of her five Best Actress nominations...

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Carole Lombard: First Lady of Screwball (and Much More!)

by Cláudio Alves

The Criterion Channel is honoring Carole Lombard with one of their latest collections. This curated sample of eleven films illuminates different talents in the Old Hollywood star's repertoire, from her comedic chops to less heralded, though not less excellent, work in melodramas. While she's best remembered as the queen of the screwball genre thanks to films like My Man Godfrey, Lombard was a multifaceted actress whose range deserves to be remembered. While her life was cut short by a tragic plane crash in 1942, the starlet's filmography is a thing of beauty, vast and distinctive, full of treasures to discover and enjoy…

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